Memory refers to a process in which new information from a surrounding environment, learned experiences, or knowledge are acquired, encoded and stored in a particular portion of the brain, and recalled (William F Ganong; Ganong's Physiology, Seoul, Hanwoori, p 289, p 291-292, 1999). The process of memory is classified as acquiring, encoding, enhancing, maintaining, and recalling. Modern society is moving toward a complicated and specialized society and correspondingly, a great amount of information and learning is required, and thus effective brain activities are required. Also, many people suffer from memory loss due to aging and disease, and as human lifetimes extend, humans require high-level mental activities. In order to appropriately cope with such cases, many efforts are being made, for example, mental activities are performed to clear the brain and improve memory, and development of pharmaceutical products and functional foods for effectively improving such functions are required in the art.
Parkinson's disease is a chronic progressive neurological disease and a representative intractable disease. Parkinson's disease develops due to sudden retrogression of cells that generate dopamine as a neurotransmitter or a significant decrease in the number of the cells in a substantia nigra portion of the mesencephalon. Although the cause of Parkinson's disease has not been clearly disclosed, it is known that the development of Parkinson's disease is related to cerebral arteriosclerosis, carbon-monoxide poisoning, medication, metabolic or traumatic encephalitis sequelae induced by hypoparathyroidism, etc. Due to the decrease of dopamine as a neurotransmitter, the balance of a neurotransmitter system is broken and thus tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia, and postural instability, which are representative symptoms of Parkinson's disease, develop.
As a therapeutic agent for Parkinson's disease, an L-dopa formulation, a dopamine receptor agonist, an anti-cholinergic agent, Eldepryl (or depreyl) etc. are known, and most of these drugs are used to control symptoms, instead of as a causal treatment, and accordingly, continuous drug administration is required. However, the long-term administration of drugs causes drug side effects. For example, anti-cholinergic agents may cause automatic nervous system disorders or mental function disorders, and thus, continuous administration thereof to old patients has a limitation. Also, regarding a Levodopa formulation, the long-term administration thereof leads to a gradual effect decrease and abnormal behavior such as body twisting or automatic movement of the hands or feet. In addition, neurostimulation using high frequency, that is, a surgical treatment such as high-frequency neurolysis or deep brain stimulation, may also be used, but these methods require invasive surgery and incur high costs.
Ischemic cerebrovascular disease or ischemia refers to a disease that causes a topical normal cerebral blood flow disorder due to various pathological abnormalities in blood vessels for supplying blood flow to the brain. Examples of ischemic cerebrovascular disease are transient ischemic attack (TIA), reversible ischemic neurologic deficit (RIND), progressing stroke, completed stroke, and ischemic vascular dementia. TIA refers to a case in which a topical neurological disorder occurs due to cerebral ischemia and recovery is within 24 hours, mostly within 10 to 15 minutes. RIND refers to a case in which although a topical ischemic symptom continues for 24 hours or more, the symptom is recovered within 3 weeks. Due to definite abnormal findings during neurological examination, RIND is clearly differentiated from TIA. Progressing stroke refers to a case in which a topical cerebral ischemia symptom is exacerbated for a few minutes to a few hours, and a cause thereof is extension of cerebral ischemia in a brain tissue of an already connected portion. The exacerbation of the topical cerebral ischemia symptom is different from exacerbation of neurological symptoms due to ischemic brain edema. Among patients having cerebral infarction in an internal carotid artery territory, about 20% experience a progressing stroke within first 48 hours, and in the case of a vertebrobasilar territory, about 40% experience a progressing stroke. Completed stroke refers to a case in which no neurological change occurs for a few days to a few months after the topical cerebral ischemia symptom occurs. Ischemic vascular dementia is a kind of vascular dementia, has a premise of two or more events of ischemic cerebral infarction, and does not necessarily require temporal causality with dementia.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is a Zingiber genus plant that belongs to a Zingiberaceae plant, is widely distributed in the Southeast Asia, and has been used as folk medicine. As a ginger component, starch accounts for 40 to 60% in ginger, and ginger further consists of an aromatic hot flavor component, a resin protein, fiber, pentosan, an inorganic material, etc. As a hot flavor component of ginger, gingeron, gingerol, shogaol, and dihydrogingerol are known, and as an aromatic component of ginger, about 40 kinds of aromatic components of ginger, such as citral or camphene, are known. As ginger activities, an anti-oxidant activity (Masuda et al., Chem. Lett., 1, pp 189-192, 1993; Jitoe et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 35, pp 981-984, 1994), an anti-inflammation activity (Ozaki et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., 39, pp 2353-2356, 1991; Jeenapongsa et al., J. Ethnopharmacol., 87, pp 143-148, 2003), a disinfestation activity (Nugroho et al., Phytochemistry, 41, pp 129-132, 1996), and a uterus relaxation activity (Kanjanaphthi et al., Planta Med., 53, pp 329-332, 1987) have been reported.